New Blue plans to perform

Incoming Carlton chief executive Michael Malouf has promised he will not be averse to taking a hard line in managing the Blues, as the club continues its rebuilding process.

Malouf, the current chief executive of Melbourne City Council, will start in his new role with Carlton on July 1, replacing Don Hanly.

Having come from an engineering background, Malouf said the transition to the football world would be a challenge to him - although he has played A-grade football for St Bernard's, and was a Hawthorn patron - but he believed there were parallels between the worlds of local government and football.

"Carlton has given me the job of getting Carlton to go forward and that's exactly what we'll be doing," Malouf said.

"I think the style I would have would depend on the circumstances I'm in, to be honest . . . Sometimes you might have to take a harder management style than other times depending on the circumstances. ");document.write("

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"Sometimes you don't have the luxury of time so I guess the style that will be adopted will depend a little bit on what I get from the board, from the management, the staff and the players," he said.

Malouf has been briefed on the state of Carlton's financial balance sheet by president Ian Collins, and said it would be an immediate priority to improve the situation.

"The board and Ian have given me a fair understanding of the balance sheet. It obviously could be a lot better and I think there's some debt there that we need to get rid of and we clearly need to improve the financial performance of the club," he said.

Collins said the club had undertaken "a pretty extensive search" as it hunted for Hanly's replacement, and was confident Malouf, who has signed an open-ended deal with the club, would be of long-term value to Carlton.

"I think we needed a change in management style," Collins said. "The club's gone through a pretty traumatic period in the last 12 months, both on and off the field, and we now want to settle down and get on with running the business as it should be run.

"We think Michael can do that with his background and what he's achieved in local government. We're very happy that he's taken on the role. I think he's fully aware.

"We've briefed him on exactly where the club's at, where we're going and what we're trying to achieve as far as a board is concerned," he said.